Re: English Railway Accident

[Ian Jelf <ian@bluebadge.demon.co.uk>]

In article <3a9e41ea$0$25510$7f31c96c@news01.syd.optusnet.com.au>, Rod
[comtrain] <freight_man@hotmail.com> writes
>Strewth fellas!
>According to an interview on the radio today, by an eyewitness...
>The Rover was on a car trailer, and was not chained on!
None of this tallies with the facts reported here.   The Land Rover was
the towing vehicle.   One report said that the vehicle on the trailer
was a Renault.   No-one has said or even suggested that it wasn't
chained on.

>The towing vehicle braked suddenly on an icy road to avoid the stopping cars
>ahead,
Again, none of this tallies with what's reported so far.   There's a lot
of *speculation* about what caused the Land  Rover to leave the motorway
but so far no *fact*.

> and slid in beside the car he was about to rear end,
There's been no mention so far of any other vehicle.

> hitting the
>railing quite hard, the Rover left the trailer, cleared the guard rails down
>the bank, and was stopped by the ballast and track.
The vehicle left the road *before* the rail (UK = "Crash Barrier")
began.

> This seems to stack up
>with the Channel 7 news report I watched tonite.
Remind me not to use Channel 7 as a source of authoritative reporting
then.......

>Has anyone heard of "an act of GOD!"
>
>How unlucky can you be. Two trains, almost immediatly after the ACCIDENT,
>and even a call to 911, could not be passed on quickly enough to stop the
>trains!
The car driver called 999 (the UK equivalent of 911 or 000) as soon as
he managed to get out of his vehicle at the bottom of the embankment.
It was while he was talking to the emergency services that the first of
the collisions occurred.

>A more positive comment would be in this age of mobile phones, for the
>relevant owners of the tracks, to post prominent telephone numbers and a
>locality identification, at each overpass, so someone could notify the
>relevant Train Controller, immediatly,
Such numbers *are* posted at many (all?) railway bridges in the UK where
a road goes *under* a railway, principally to let the railway know if a
high vehicle strikes a low bridge.   The numbers are also posted at
level crossings.

In this case, of  course, no-one could reasonably have foreseen that a
road vehicle could end up where it did.

> instead of piss farting around with
>Police etc Think how long it would have taken to get the message
>through....10 mins, 30 minutes...Would the Coppers know who to call.
Yes, they would.   But time was very short;  too short, tragically.

> Did the
>Guy on the bridge know where he was ,even
That is a different issue and an inherent problem with people using
mobile telephones to call emergency services.
>Rod.
>

-- 
Ian Jelf        http://www.bluebadge.demon.co.uk
Birmingham, UK
        Registered "Blue Badge" Tourist Guide
        for the Heart of England and London